Math always helps, but you can program without knowing much about it. It depends on the types of programs you want to write, of course. I can think of several people who started C or C++ programming before they were even in high school, so post-algebra math is by no means an ironclad requirement.

dwk

Seek and ye shall find. quaere et invenies.

"Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it." -- Alan Perlis
"Testing can only prove the presence of bugs, not their absence." -- Edsger Dijkstra
"The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing." -- John Powell

Well I don't plan to make a big career out of programming. It was more like, I didn't know how too, and that irritated me. So I'm learning. Basically I plan on just making basic programs, maybe a game or two when I get better.

Knowledge of mathematical facts is not important at all. Aptitude for formal reasoning seems important, though. Note that I mean "aptitude," not that you've ever done it before. You'll end up thinking in that pattern when writing programs. Unless you write code randomly and pray...

The fact that math ability correlates with programming ability has to do with this. It's the ability to _think_ that matters.

There are 10 types of people in this world, those who cringed when reading the beginning of this sentence and those who salivated to how superior they are for understanding something as simple as binary.

Knowledge of mathematical facts is not important at all. Aptitude for formal reasoning seems important, though. Note that I mean "aptitude," not that you've ever done it before. You'll end up thinking in that pattern when writing programs. Unless you write code randomly and pray...

The fact that math ability correlates with programming ability has to do with this. It's the ability to _think_ that matters.

Unless you are programming a math engine, you won't directly be using much math. However, like Rashakil Fol says, it is a way of thinking. The reason that Calculus is required for majors that would otherwise need very little math is that Calculus trains your mind to think in a specific way that helps with that major.

organized thoughts

Originally Posted by HunterCS

Well I don't plan to make a big career out of programming. It was more like, I didn't know how too, and that irritated me. So I'm learning. Basically I plan on just making basic programs, maybe a game or two when I get better.

Hunter, when I first learned about "flowcharts" in third grade...I flowcharted everything. "How to sharpen a pencil" and even "How to take a c___". That was 1970. And so there sat a bunch of boxes and questions that branched to multiple states (didn't even know what a state was) on a 11x8.5 paper that kept me from getting bored in school.

Programming is inherently more mathematical in and of itself than people give it credit. So in some ways when your really doing a good job at programming you're doing math using "graphs". Its just more topographical than algebraic.